Your Grace Is Enough

You know, its hard being a soldier of Christ. Its hard to proclaim the Law to people. Its hard to proclaim Christ to people. The task being as hard as it is we face opposition from many other sources. One of them is feelings of inadequacy. We feel as if we don't know enough. OR we feel as if we're not holy enough to tell people. Yes, these feelings are common to me. Especially when I fail God i.e. sin. But really, we're just a drowning man telling another drowning man that there is a lifeboat. The main problem is convincing the drowning man that he actually is drowning.

Today I want to celebrate the song (and accompanying passage of Scripture) that lifts my spirits whenever I feel inadequate.

Your Grace Is Enough is written by Matt Maher and popularized by Chris Tomlin. It is the FIRST song to reach 100 plays on my iTunes! Yeah! Its true. I often need God to lift me up and remind me that despite my failings his grace is sufficient for me.

Great is Your faithfulness oh God
You wrestle with the sinner's restless heart
You lead us by still waters and to mercy
And nothing can keep us apart

So remember Your people
Remember Your children
Remember Your promise
Oh God

Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough for me

Great is Your love and justice God of Jacob
You use the weak to lead the strong
You lead us in the song of Your salvation
And all Your people sing along

So remember Your people
Remember Your children
Remember Your promise
Oh God

Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough for me (x2)

remember Your people
Remember Your children
Remember Your promise
Oh God

Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough
Your grace is enough for me

Your grace is enough
Heaven reaches out to us
Your grace is enough for me
God i see your grace is enough
I'm covered in your love
Your grace is enough for me
For me
For me

2 Corinthians 12

⁷To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. ¹⁰That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Lord help me boast in my weaknesses for I want Christ's power to rest in me.


I am so poor right now but I will not be ashamed of my poverty. I will boast in it for it forces me to rely on God and God's power will rest on me!

SALVATION IS HERE

Salvation is here
Salvation is here and He lives in me
Salvation is here
Salvation that died just to set me free
Salvation is here
Salvation is here and He lives in me
Salvation is here

Its true!!! Its true!!! God is gracious! We have seen the first salvation of the year in Frankston!
How wondrous, how glorious it is to witness a person moving from darkness to light! It is the work of the Holy Spirit, a miracle. For only God can change a person's heart. No amount of persuasion of ours would work without God's hand.

It was one of those things where everything fell into place perfectly, so perfectly that it could only have been orchestrated by God. All I did was to be obedient in witnessing!
I had planned to go with Hannah to witness to her friend after church on Sunday. Problem was, my friend Jo Ann also planned to come visit me and I was also meant to go have dinner with David and his friend. I'm like... agh.. overcommitting yet again.
But David had already met his friend without me on Saturday night. Then, Jo Ann stalled too long and decided not to come. So my whole evening was free.

FLASHBACK: April 09' HOPE Oceania Convention. I decided to be serious about my witness in Frankston. I told the Lord I would fast (or abstain) from my favourite snack, chocolate especially chocolate bars i.e. Snickers, Picnic, Time Out until I see the first salvation in Frankston. So everytime I saw chocolate, I was reminded of my desperate need to witness (because not being able to eat chocolate is no fun at all! haha..).

After witnessing, I waited for a sign from the person to confirm to me that the person was ready to accept Jesus. The person said some things which confirmed it to me. I explained what accepting Jesus meant using the EE points (1. Repent 2. Believe in Jesus, his death and resurrection 3. Accept Jesus as saviour 4. Accept Jesus as Lord) then I lead the person in the sinner's prayer.

After that, the person offered me chocolate and I was about to reject it but as I held it in my hand it dawned upon me that my fast was over! It was the Lord's way of telling me good job, son. Here, have some chocolate.

As I rejoiced on the way home, the enormity of what I had just done started to sink in. The Lord had used me (and Hannah of course!) for His glory! To turn a sinner to salvation! There was no greater thing you could do on this planet! There is no greater joy!*

I was feeling downright low, no I was crushed the day before because of my job situation. But the Lord was gracious. The Lord reminded me once again of my purpose in life! I do not live to be the best marketer around! I live for Jesus! I live to share the gospel of grace! I started jumping around my room like a monkey praising God (thank God I was home alone) and shouting at the top of my voice. I knew I had to shower so I continued praising God there. I kept singing Salvation is Here and Shout Unto God by Hillsong United. You know how when God touches people, they usually weep. Now that happens to me too, sometimes because of the guilt of my sin (Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret 2 Corinthians 7:10) sometimes because of intense stress but how God usually touches me is by infusing me with an incredible sense of joy that manifests itself in "holy laughter" or "laughing in the spirit". You know how people usually break down during slow, worshipful songs? There I was being a monkey in the shower singing Shout Unto God (A real fist pumping song)... and ZAP! I broke down... laughing!





As wounds which mar the chosen one, bring many sons to glory!





*To be politically correct, the only greater thing you could do is accept Jesus yourself and the joy of your own salvation should be the greatest joy.

O Praise Him!

So you think you can worship? Naah.. Its not a new reality TV show. God forbid. Recently, I have been very inspired by a video of this guy singing David Crowder's 'O Praise Him'. Thanks to Phil who has been showing this video at church every week for over a month. Its truly inspirational. If we love Jesus so much, why doesn't our worship overflow everyday in this manner (look at guy in video)? Do we only express our worship fervently at a Hillsong concert? What about everyday in our bedrooms? What about on the streets like that dude? Respect!

Here I Go Again

This is one of the best songs regarding evangelism (mind you there aren't many). It accurately depicts the doubts and uncertainty going through a Christian's mind as he/she struggles with evangelism.


Casting Crowns - Here I Go Again

Father, hear my prayer
I need the perfect words
Words that he will hear
And know they're straight from You
I don't know what to say
I only know it hurts
To see my only friend slowly fade away

Chorus:
So maybe this time
I'll speak the words of life
With Your fire in my eyes
But that old familiar fear
is tearin' at my words
What am I so afraid of?
'Cause here I go again
Talkin' 'bout the rain
And mullin' over things
that won't live past today
And as I dance around the truth
Time is not his friend
This might be my last chance
to tell him that You love Him

But here I go again
Here I go again

Lord, You love him so
You gave Your only Son
If he will just believe
He will never die
But how then will he know
What he has never heard?
Lord he has never seen mirrored in my life

Chorus:

But here I go again
Here I go, here I go

Chorus:

This might be my last chance
To tell him that You love him
This might be my last chance
To tell him that You love him

You love him, You love him
What am I so afraid
What am I so afraid
What am I so afraid of?
How then will he know
What he has never heard?

Beginnings

So why start a new blog?

I toyed with the idea of starting a Christian blog for awhile now. Then I had to think of its purpose, target audience, etc. After much deliberating, procrastinating and other external factors, I have decided to make this an evangelism blog targeted at Christians. Note that I said 'evangelism', not 'evangelistic' meaning its a discussion about evangelism not a blog that's meant to reach out to non-Christians (evangelistic).

What do I plan to achieve with this blog?

1. Accountability for myself: My fire and passion for evangelism goes through peaks and troughs. I do not yet have a consistent fire like some great men (Billy Graham, Reinhard Bonkke, John Wesley). Now that people out there know what I'm doing with my time, whether or not I am evangelising, I can be accountable for my time and hopefully force myself to put evangelism a lot higher on my priority list.

2. Encouragement for others: I hope that my readers would also be stirred, get off their bums and start preaching the Word to their own circle of friends.

3. Discussion and learning: I hope to learn from visitors to the blog and hope that what I know can also benefit others. It can also become an avenue for other people to share their stories and struggles. Together, through brainstorming, more ideas will be generated and more people will be excited about evangelism!

4. Prayer support: When we know what each of us is going through we can pray for each other.

5. Church: I did propose to my church leadership during a meeting that an evangelistic blog is a tool for evangelism. So hopefully I will see more people coming to my local church, HOPE Frankston.

The Great Commission (Matthew 28: 18-20)
¹⁸Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Acts 1: ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

I guess our job is pretty straightforward.

1. Make disciples of all nations. Probably starting with our own. Well personally I'm in Australia so I'm working in a mission field some what (not my home country which is Malaysia)

2. Teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded us. Wow, that's hard. I'm not even obeying everything myself.

3. Be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. That's what we're called to do, witness, not convert! Holy Spirit converts! Always! Its just like telling people that the Maccas (McDonalds) soft serve vanilla ice cream (cone) rocks! That's all we can do. At the end of the day people would have to go there and buy it themselves. They have to make their own decision.

And with the ends of the earth thing, its good to dream big but you work on your end and I work on my end, then we'll talk.



My aim is also that other people will write and contribute to this blog. I'm not 100% sure what the best way of doing this is. Maybe I'll ask Kien.

Lastly, with the blog's name, we are all called to be soldiers of the Lord's army. The question we have to ask ourselves is what kind of soldier are we? The Lord will hold us accountable for the life we live on this earth. How much of our life have we used to impact others and bring them into the kingdom? We are kingdom soldiers! Are you gonna be a soldier that spends most of his/her time in the barracks (church) or be out in the field fighting for souls?

The irony is we spend a lot more time in the field than the barracks, just that we're not spending it fighting for souls.

Let me end with a favourite childhood song of mine...

I'm in the Lord's Army


I may never march in the infantry,
Ride with the calvary,
Shoot the artillery,
I may never fly over the enemy,
But I'm in the Lord's army

I'm in the Lord's army
Yes sir
I'm in the Lord's army
Yes sir